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Like his mother and like his daughter, Will Allen meant to escape the life of a farmer, only to learn he never really could — nor did he really want to. The son of a sharecropper, the 60-year-old Allen has become an icon of the urban agriculture movement. He runs a farm and education center in Milwaukee called Growing Power that produces food and soil for thousands, tries innovations in composting and growing, employs more than 100 people, trains many others and aims to help transform the food system. In one way, it began in 1993, when Allen opened a farm stand not far from Milwaukee's largest public housing project. In another, it began decades earlier. Allen tells both stories...

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Like his mother and like his daughter, Will Allen meant to escape the life of a farmer, only to learn he never really could — nor did he really want to.The son of a sharecropper, the 60-year-old Allen has become an icon of the urban agriculture...